SERPO holds eye-opening open house
CRANBERRY — Injection molding machine company SEPRO America had its first open house robotics demonstration Saturday for the community to see its products up close.
SEPRO is a producer of Cartesian robots, which can move along three-axis paths and are used in a number of industries, including medical, automotive, packaging and electronics.
According to Raul Scheller, managing director, the idea for the open house was to show their employees’ families what it is the company does.
“Now they can see that this is what we do, and it creates a whole new conversation at home,” he said. “Now the younger kids can understand what manufacturing is, and look at the robots and think this is fun.”
Scheller said the company’s robots help make everything from car bumpers and dashboards to electronic device components.
For customers and vendors attending the open house, Scheller said the goal was to help them have better understanding of the company’s mission.
“We provide full control of production engineering. Our team is always trying to help the customer solve challenging problems and make production easier,” he said.
There were more than eight machines on display, some that picked and placed products, or that loaded parts into a mold. One would play tic-tac-toe, picking up large Xs and Os and placing them on a board, following a human player’s turn. Families in attendance loved playing against the robot, including 11-year-old Olivia Cognet, whose mother, Myra, works for SEPRO.
“They don’t normally get to see this stuff when they come here,” her mother said.
Clay Johnson said he works for a vendor who recruits for SEPRO, and he brought his 13-year-old son, Cameron, so they could learn about the different robots.
“He’s thinking about going into robotics, and I wanted him to see what it’s about from a real-life perspective,” Clay said.
“I like seeing all the code on the computers and how it moves the robotics,” Cameron said.
Pat Connolly, engineering manager at SEPRO who has worked with the company for 17 years, brought his family to experience the workplace with him.
“I’ve been doing this so long you kind of get numb to how cool it is,” he said. “It’s re-energizing to have my son ask questions about what I do.”
